Making and Being offers a framework for teaching art that emphasizes contemplation, collaboration, and political economy. Authors Susan Jahoda and Caroline Woolard, two visual arts educators and members of the collective BFAMFAPhD, share ideas and teaching strategies that they have adapted to spaces of learning which range widely, from self-organized workshops for professional artists to Foundations BFA and MFA thesis classes. This hands-on guide includes activities, worksheets, and assignments and is a critical resource for artists and art educators today. Making and Being is a book, a series of videos, a deck of cards, and an interactive website with freely downloadable content. Jahoda and Woolard, along with BFAMFAPhD member Emily Tareila, will give an overview of their work, share an attunement practice, facilitate an activity that will help groups identify their skills, strengths, and resources, and close with critique worksheets, intergroup dialog, and break out groups.
Space is limited for this event, so please RSVP here.
About the Presenters
Susan Jahoda is Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Jahoda is an artist, educator, and organizer whose work includes video, photography, text, performance, installation and research-based collaborative projects. Works have been produced for venues in London, Paris, Basel, New York, Seoul, and Moscow. Jahoda is a core member of BFAMFAPhD and the Pedagogy Group, collectives of socially engaged artists and educators based in New York City.
Caroline Woolard is Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the University of Hartford, CT and employs sculpture, immersive installation, and online networks to imagine and enact systems of mutual aid and collaboration. Her work has been featured twice on New York Close Up (2014, 2016), a digital film series produced by Art21 and broadcast on PBS. Woolard is the 2018–20 inaugural Walentas Fellow at Moore College of Art and Design and her work has been commissioned by and exhibited in major national and international museums, including at MoMA, the Whitney Museum, and Creative Time. Woolard is a core member of BFAMFAPhD.
BFAMFAPhD is a collective that formed in 2012 to make art, reports, and teaching tools to advocate for cultural equity in the United States. The work of the collective is to bring people together to analyze and reimagine relationships of power in the arts. BFAMFAPhD core members are: Susan Jahoda, Emilio Martínez Poppe, Agnes Szanyi, Emily Tareila, Vicky Virgin, and Caroline Woolard. Emily Tareila is an artist and educator in Western Massachusetts. More information is online at: http://bfamfaphd.com
Presented by SHIFT: A Residency for Art Workers. SHIFT Residency was launched in August 2010 to provide an unprecedented opportunity: peer support and studio space for artists who work in arts organizations (as curators, educators, administrators etc.). For these individuals, their livelihood isn’t just a day job, but a passion and responsibility, demanding high amounts of creativity, stamina, and sacrifice. SHIFT Residency honors these artists’ commitment to the art community with a unique environment to revitalize their studio practices. Since its launch, SHIFT has accommodated over forty artists working in a growing range of media, from sound and installation to painting, performance, and social practice. Find out more about SHIFT here.
This event is free and open to the public but limited seating is available, RSVP required - RSVP HERE.
ACCESSIBILITY
EFA Project Space is located at 323 W. 39th Street, 2nd Floor, between 8th and 9th Avenues, in Manhattan. The building is wheelchair accessible, with two accessible elevators in the lobby. Guests are asked to sign in in the lobby, but no ID is required for entry. Gender neutral and wheelchair accessible restrooms are available on the 3rd floor. Nearest accessible subway station is 42nd Street/Port Authority, 1 block north on 8th Avenue. EFA Project Space is committed to nurturing an intergenerational environment and we encourage kid noise at our events. Please notify us of any accessibility needs by email projectspace@efanyc.org, by phone at (212) 563-5855 x 233.
